Poems by Presidents: The First-Ever Anthology

"Well-written, thoroughly researched, and impeccably organized, Poems by Presidents explores an intriguing and unexpected side to many American presidents: they wrote poetry! In this excellent anthology of presidential poems, Michael Croland offers us a new way to celebrate some of our most celebrated leaders." —Susan Katz, author of The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub.

This first-ever anthology features poems by eleven presidents who, through good times and bad, turned to poetry to express themselves. This compelling collection brings presidents’ literary pursuits to light, unveiling their deepest thoughts and emotions. Highlights include George Washington’s teenage romantic yearnings, Thomas Jefferson’s death-bed adieu, John Quincy Adams’s sonnet memorializing his father, Abraham Lincoln’s mockery of the Confederacy, Woodrow Wilson’s humorous limericks, Warren G. Harding’s steamy love poems to his mistress, and Ronald Wilson Reagan’s existential reflections. Appendixes explore additional presidents who wrote poetry, misattributions, prose formatted as verse, and fondness for poetry. Poems by Presidents is a rewarding resource for poetry lovers and readers interested in presidential biographies and American history.

"From Madison’s collegiate satires to Harding’s racy romantic rhymes, this anthology has something to surprise and delight even the most dedicated history buff. It will teach you something about our presidents’ personal lives, their poetic talents, and even their political ambitions."
—Craig Fehrman, author of Author in Chief
 
"This distinctive collection is a pleasure to read and enjoy. It provides another dimension to our awareness of the personalities and talents of many of our presidents." —Fred Kaplan, author of His Masterly Pen: A Biography of Jefferson the Writer
 
"Michael Croland has assembled an interesting and unexpected anthology of presidential poetry. Poems by Presidents leaves the reader with a better understanding of the concealed humanity often buried within the seemingly stoic men who have held our nation’s highest office." —Michael B. Costanzo, author of Author in Chief
 
"This unique collection by US presidents, featuring poems ranging from spiritual to humorous to erotic, is surprising, fascinating, and humanizing."
—Marilyn Singer, author of Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems about Our Presidents
 
"A wonderful volume, full of keen insights into a wide array of American presidents. . . . The superb focus of this book brings fascinating details to light." —Jonathan Gross, editor of Thomas Jefferson’s Scrapbooks
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Dec 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9780486853062

Book preview

e9780486851532_cover.jpg

Advance Praise for

Poems by Presidents: The First-Ever Anthology

From Madison’s collegiate satires to Harding’s racy romantic rhymes, this anthology has something to surprise and delight even the most dedicated history buff. It will teach you something about our presidents’ personal lives, their poetic talents, and even their political ambitions.

—Craig Fehrman, author of Author in Chief:

The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote

Well-written, thoroughly researched, and impeccably organized, Poems by Presidents explores an intriguing and unexpected side to many American presidents: they wrote poetry! In this excellent anthology of presidential poems, Michael Croland offers us a new way to celebrate some of our most celebrated leaders.

—Susan Katz, author of The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub

This distinctive collection is a pleasure to read and enjoy. It provides another dimension to our awareness of the personalities and talents of many of our presidents. Who knew that Warren G. Harding wrote erotically explicit love poems? And that many of our presidents turned to poetry for emotional and literary sustenance? Appropriately, the president-poet most fully represented in this excellent anthology is the most talented poet among our presidents, John Quincy Adams, followed by Abraham Lincoln, who was a minor poet in poetry and a major poet in prose.

—Fred Kaplan, author of His Masterly Pen:

A Biography of Jefferson the Writer

Michael Croland has assembled an interesting and unexpected anthology of presidential poetry. Witness George Washington’s teenage heartache, or blush at Warren Harding’s rhyming adultery. Poems by Presidents leaves the reader with a better understanding of the concealed humanity often buried within the seemingly stoic men who have held our nation’s highest office.

—Michael B. Costanzo, author of Author in Chief:

The Presidents as Writers from Washington to Trump

Chief executive, commander-in-chief, head of state—and poet? Yes, indeed! This unique collection by US presidents, featuring poems ranging from spiritual to humorous to erotic, is surprising, fascinating, and humanizing. There is always something new to learn about these gentlemen—and this book proves it.

—Marilyn Singer, author of Rutherford B., Who Was He?:

Poems about Our Presidents and Have You Heard about Lady Bird?:

Poems about Our First Ladies

A wonderful volume, full of keen insights into a wide array of American presidents. . . . The superb focus of this book brings fascinating details to light.

—Jonathan Gross, editor of Thomas Jefferson’s Scrapbooks

Author Michael Croland has captured the essence of a unique piece of Americana: the poetic verse of America’s presidents. Readers can gain a unique insight into the inner thoughts and feelings of our leaders, providing those who are interested or curious some additional understanding of their personalities.

—Jeffrey A. Margolis, author of The President’s Pen

The Presidents as Writers from Washington to Trump

Chief executive, commander-in-chief, head of state—and poet? Yes, indeed! This unique collection by US presidents, featuring poems ranging from spiritual to humorous to erotic, is surprising, fascinating, and humanizing. There is always something new to learn about these gentlemen—and this book proves it.

—Marilyn Singer, author of Rutherford B., Who Was He?:

Poems about Our Presidents and Have You Heard about Lady Bird?:

Poems about Our First Ladies

A wonderful volume, full of keen insights into a wide array of American presidents. . . . The superb focus of this book brings fascinating details to light.

—Jonathan Gross, editor of Thomas Jefferson’s Scrapbooks

Author Michael Croland has captured the essence of a unique piece of Americana: the poetic verse of America’s presidents. Readers can gain a unique insight into the inner thoughts and feelings of our leaders, providing those who are interested or curious some additional understanding of their personalities.

—Jeffrey A. Margolis, author of The President’s Pen

Poems by

Presidents

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THE FIRST-EVER ANTHOLOGY

EDITED BY MICHAEL CROLAND

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK

Poems by

Presidents

image/TitlePageDivider.jpg

THE FIRST-EVER ANTHOLOGY

Copyright © 2023 by Dover Publications

All rights reserved.

Poems by Presidents: The First-Ever Anthology is a new work, first published by Dover Publications

in 2023.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Croland, Michael, editor.

Title: Poems by presidents : the first-ever anthology / edited by Michael Croland.

Description: Garden City : Dover Publications, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: This first-ever anthology features poems by eleven presidents who, through good times and bad, turned to poetry to express themselves. This compelling collection brings presidents’ literary pursuits to light, unveiling their deepest thoughts and emotions. Highlights include George Washington’s teenage romantic yearnings, Thomas Jefferson’s death-bed adieu, John Quincy Adams’s sonnet memorializing his father, Abraham Lincoln’s mockery of the Confederacy, Woodrow Wilson’s humorous limericks, Warren G. Harding’s steamy love poems to his mistress, and Ronald Wilson Reagan’s existential reflections. Appendixes explore additional presidents who wrote poetry, misattributions, prose formatted as verse, and fondness for poetry. Poems by Presidents is a rewarding resource for poetry lovers and readers interested in presidential biographies and American history.—Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023011516 | ISBN 9780486851532 (trade paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: American poetry. | Presidents’ writings, American. | BISAC: POETRY / Subjects & Themes / Political & Protest | HISTORY / United States / General | LCGFT: Poetry.

Classification: LCC PS591.P67 P64 2023 | DDC 811—dc23/eng/20230712

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023011516

Manufactured in the United States of America

www.doverpublications.com

To Tamara and Robin

Contents

Introduction

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

John Quincy Adams

John Tyler

Abraham Lincoln

Ulysses S. Grant

James Abram Garfield

Woodrow Wilson

Warren G. Harding

Ronald Wilson Reagan

Appendix A: Four Additional Presidents Who Wrote Poetry

Appendix B: Misattributions

Appendix C: Prose Formatted as Verse

Appendix D: Fondness for Poetry

Selected Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Peter Lenz and Susan Rattiner for your support of this anthology. Thank you to the rest of the Dover team, especially Peter Donahue, Andrew Sliwoski, and Marie Zaczkiewicz.

Thank you to Susan Rattiner and Ilene Rattiner for your assistance deciphering handwritten poems.

Thank you, John Grafton, for your guidance.

Thank you to the Massachusetts Historical Society—particularly Hannah Elder, Neal Millikan, and Sara Martin—for providing John Quincy Adams’s A Theory of Comets: To the Comet Seen at Quincy, 6. October 1825: A Sonnet and On Witnessing the Ascension in a Balloon of Madame Johnson, a Widowed Mother, at Castle Garden, New York, 20. October 1825: A Sonnet from the Adams Family Papers.

John Tyler’s Oh child of my love thou wert born for a day and all the selections by Warren G. Harding came from the Library of Congress. Thank you to Peter Armenti from the Researcher and Reference Services Division; Julie Miller, Edith A. Sandler, and Lara Szypszak from the Manuscript Division; and Morgan Davis from the Music Division.

Thank you to Earl Gregg Swem Library at William & Mary Libraries, particularly Carolyn Wilson and Kaitlyn Weathers, for providing Tyler’s Virginia and To M. G. B. from the Tyler Family Papers.

Woodrow Wilson’s A River’s Course, A Song, To E. L. A. on Her Birthday, and On Board Steamship Anchoria originally appeared in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, published by Princeton University Press.

Permission to publish Ronald Wilson Reagan’s Life and Time was granted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

Thank you to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, particularly Virginia Lewick, for providing the verse recited by Roosevelt.

Thank you to Yale University Library’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, George H. W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum, Barack Obama Presidential Library, National Library of Australia, and the New York Public Library’s Scan & Deliver and General Research Division.

Thank you, Tamara, for your love and patience.

Poetically speaking, here’s a shout-out to Robin, Mom, Jack, Nancy, Benjamin, Alan, Marla, Dan, Lisa, Zachary, and Zoey.

Introduction

There is more of a nation’s politics to be gotten out of its poetry than out of all its systematic writers upon public affairs and constitutions.

—Woodrow Wilson

Even Woodrow Wilson, one of the most talented presidential poets, would have been surprised to find his verse collected and published. An anthology for general readers was not his intended purpose or audience. But presidents’